Too Stubborn for your Own Good (SnippetDrabble)
by Shezu
Summary: Maria, a lieutenant under Gabriel Reyes, gets injured in the field and returns without signing into sick bay, keeping her wound stubbornly hidden under her jacket. When a little bird informs Reyes, he decides to take in on the woman's stubborn pride and do something about her wound; forcefully if necessary.


**This is a snippet/drabble. Think of it like a sketch dump for writing. If you want more, lemme know. I might post another chapter and if I get enough feedback (And if I have enough inspiration) I might make it into a full fledged story.**

Maria keeps a straight face as she fires her weapon down range, putting three bullets in the dummy robot. Despite her wound hidden under her coat and her slightly shaking hands, the dummy drops to the floor 'dead'.

"You're off." The voice startles the woman, who winces slightly in pain. The movement doesn't go unnoticed, nor does the fact that the woman was startled in the first place.

The brunette turns as the source of the voice walks up to her. She snaps a salute to her chocolate skinned commanding office, who just waves it off as he approaches her. A good half a foot taller than her, his sharp chocolate eyes are lock on her.

"You didn't sign in at sickbay." He says.

"I didn't go to sickbay, sir." She responds, though she knows that he's already well aware.

"Oh?" He looks pissed but he's keeping his anger in check. "And why not?"

"It wasn't a bad wound, sir. I took care of it myself." She says simply, not backing down even as he steps closer.

"You did not apply for sick leave either." He comments.

"I don't need it." She assures. His eyes narrow at that comment.

"Don't you? Assuming your wound does not infect, you think you could handle yourself in a fight right now?" Her body tenses at his comment but she stubbornly nods.

"Yes sir." He leans down close, face inches from hers.

"Prove it."

Maybe she shouldn't have taken him up on that offer. It was effort not to scream as the Captain hounded the wound blow after blow before easily dropping the woman to the floor. The shock of the pain was so strong that she couldn't move and could barely breath. Reyes stood over her, arms folded.

"Rethinking what you said earlier?" He growls in that raspy voice of his. She gives him an exhausted glare.

"No sir." Her entire body shaking, she forced herself to stand, a stubborn pride winning out. Her stubbornness wasn't the only reason she fought, though. Maria honestly didn't think her wound so bad, and thought herself a wimp and a whining drama-queen. Never mind the bandage that was now stained with blood from the freshly opened wound. Never mind the cold feeling in her fingers, the tingling in her feet, or the dizziness. Never mind the fact that she could barely see or stand. She had to be making a bigger deal out of it than it really was. She couldn't sit here and complain while others had it worse. There were things to get done.

"I'd admire your stubbornness and strength if it wasn't for your blatant stupidity." The man growls and the woman suddenly feels way too tired to deal with this shit. Turning away from him and towards the door of the training room, she staggers off, sheer force of will the only thing keeping her standing.

"I haven't dismissed you." The man growls as he walks after her.

"Kindly shove it up your ass. I have work to do." She mutters, just loud enough for him to hear. Her filter and capacity to care are always the first things to go when she's tired or-in this case-injured.

There's a snarl behind her before she's suddenly yanked back by her collar and shoved onto the ground, a knee on her chest pinning her to the mat beneath her.

"You're under my charge." He growls as she struggles weakly beneath him. "And you just lost your freedom, soldier. You'll be seeing Dr. Ziegler." Maria glares up at him.

"Like hell. I don't need her, now piss off." The captain leans down very close, his breath warm against her ear.

"I wasn't asking." Maria's hazy mind barely has time to comprehend what's happening before she finds herself over the shoulder of her commanding officer, his vice grip on her thighs locking her there. Clawing at the back of his shirt with her good arm in an attempt to gain some leverage, she starts wiggling and squirming in his hold.

"Let me down!" The woman shrieks as she shoves weakly at the man's back, grabbing fists full of his tight black t-shirt to try and pry herself off of him. Gabriel, however, had a firm hold on the back of her thighs, the steel cables that were the muscles in his forearm pressed firmly against her legs; unmoving.

"Scream all you want, lieutenant," the captain grunts as his grip tightens just a little on her legs as they attempt to strike him in the chest, "Dr. Ziegler will take a look at you and patch you up before I'm forcing you to take sick leave." The woman lets out an indignant squeak at that.

"Like hell you will!" She snarls at him.

"Try to work and I'll strap your ass down to the bed," he turns a corner and spots a grinning McCree leaning against the wall.

"Careful who you say that around, Captain," the man teases even as the chocolate skinned man strides past. "Some people might take that the wrong way!" Maria looks over at the man with a pleading scowl.

"Wipe that smirk off your face and help me, McCree!" She yells at him, but the man just laughs and holds up his hands.

"You got yerself into this mess, ma'am~" He purrs, "Maybe you should go to sickbay yerself next time!" The woman's eyes go wide at the fact that the cowboy obviously knew that she was wounded before they narrow abruptly. He must've tipped Reyes off.

"Goddammit, McCree!" She calls as the man holding her turns another corner and strides into the medical quarters. It seems that Ziegler was informed beforehand as the Captain doesn't say two words to her before she's carried into an exam room and set roughly on one of those particularly fancy medical chairs. The blonde doctor's heels click against the floor as she trots up to the woman and offers her a kindly smile.

"What seems to be the problem?" She asks. Good. She wasn't informed of details.

"Nothing so drastic." Maria assures with a kind, yet sheepish, smile, "Gabriel is over reacting," her glare falls on the man before returning to Angela. "My injury is minor, nothing that needed to be forced here for and drawing you away from those that got seriously injured during the fight." She stands quickly, forcing the blonde to take half a step back. "I'm sorry for wasting your time. Please focus on my men."

The lieutenant isn't able to take half a step towards the door before the much larger male grabs her by her injured shoulder and shoves her back into the seat. Her entire body grows tense and spasms twice as she lets out a sharp grasp of pain. Though the man is glared at by the doctor, her gaze falls back onto the woman, just as harsh.

"'Nothing', hm?" The doctor echoes, a scolding tone to her voice even as Gabriel releases the woman.

"Enough of your protesting," Angela insists, "show me your wound." The brunette looks between Gabriel and Ziegler before deciding she's outnumbered and out classed. With a grumble and a sigh, the woman pulls the sleeve of her jacket down with her uninjured hand, hissing softly as the blood soaked fabric is pulled free from the wound and down the limp limb so the woman can take a look.

Angela steps closer as Gabriel relocates to the brunette's other side, on hand to pin her down should he need to...again. Pulling the fabric of the woman's shirt away from the wound, the doctor inspects it closely. The deep frown on her face is not a good sign.

"How barbaric." The woman breathes as she probes around the wound gently. "I haven't seen these rounds used in years. These bullets were designed to shatter in the wound to make it harder to remove." The woman explains, making Maria pale just a little, though her face was already almost white by this point due to a nasty combination of blood loss, pain, fever and exhaustion.

"I need to remove these now. I can only administer a local anesthetic." The woman warns even as she straightens and scurries over to the cabinets along one wall. "Reyes, would you be so kind as to lower the seat back. It's the large lever on the back." It takes only a moment before the chair is suddenly lying flat and the brunette is staring, wide eyed, up at her Captain's serious visage. She hasn't seen him serious very often, and the look sends a shiver up her spine, her heart racing.

Barely any time seems to pass as she stares up at the face before Ziegler is suddenly beside her, spraying some liquid over the wound quickly.

"I'll need to dig out the bullets quickly," she explains as she quickly pulls on gloves and grabs several viscous looking surgical tools. "The fragments are lead line and are likely already poisoning you. If you had come to me to begin with, I would have had time to create a proper anesthetic or called Anna." Despite the scolding, Angela, much like Reyes, looks almost frighteningly serious. "The numbing agent should be starting to work already but this will hurt." The blonde places a comforting hand on her forearm gently before grabbing a pair of medical scissors and cutting away the fabric of the shirt surrounding the wound.

"Reyes, would you-"

"Yeah," the Captain doesn't seem to need the doctor to finish her question before he grabs the brunette's hand, giving it a soft squeeze as he looks down at her. Maria looks up at him abruptly before taking several deep, controlled, breathes through her nose.

"Alright, Maria," the blonde says quietly. "I'm starting,"

It's almost an hours before Ziegler, sweating lightly from the effort, drops the last piece of shrapnel from the Lieutenant's shoulder and drops it onto her medical tray with a softly clatter, the tweezers she'd been using soon following.

"There," Ziegler sighs, "Now just to patch you up," the blonde assures as she grabs further vials and strange equipment to clean out and seal the wound.

Maria, now curled up on the chair, panting heavily, her entire body shaking as her muscles go limp and she release her death grip on Gabriel's hand. To her credit, the woman didn't scream or make more than the occasional gasp of pain during the whole process. The captain places his other hand on her head gently, the most sincere praise she's ever given her. The woman can barely focus on it, however, simply trying to stay conscious at this point.

"She will need to be monitored for several hours." Angela informs Reyes as she finishes cleaning the wound, moving on to the foam to seal it. "I doubt she will take kindly to remaining here, though I do wish to ensure she takes the medicine I will prescribe her." The Captain gets her implied meaning quickly and nods.

"I'll keep an eye on her," he assures. "She's my responsibility regardless. Stubborn though she is, I'll make sure she does what she needs to."

"M'right here. I can hear you." Comes a muttered voice from the barely conscious brunette; awake though her eyes remain closed. Angela chuckles softly as she wraps a crisp white bandage around her wound with gentle, skilled, hands.

"Haven't you passed out yet, stubborn girl?" Reyes huffs out at her.

"Not on your life, Capt'n." She hisses, cracking one eyes open to look up at him. "I'll remind you that I've never passed out in my life," she points out proudly.

"If you want to keep that record, you'd do well to behave, then," he grins down at her cruelly, "Or I'll just knock your ass out myself." She glares at him and huffs before the doctor pulls away from her and stands.

"There you are. All finished." She smiles gently as she pulls off her gloves and sets them on the tray. "Now, I'll be sending you to your quarters with orders to stay there. Captain Reyes will take you to make certain you stay put," she looks up at the chocolate skinned man, who nods. "I don't want you doing any work for at least the next twenty-four hours. I want you to rest." She looks down at the lieutenant, who stares back up at her with half lidded eyes. "I'll be sending something for the pain and to combat the lead poisoning later." Ziegler, having given her information, looks back at the Captain and nods ones to dismiss them, before busying herself with cleaning up the mess.

Gabriel gives the brunette little time for her groggy brain to catch up before she finds herself suddenly pressed against the man's chest, strong arms supporting her weight under her knees and back.

"G-gabe, don't. M'heavy." She grunts out, pushing weakly at his chest, which rumbles under her palm in a warning growl.

"Enough, Maria. No more of your stubbornness for now." He growls, that smooth voice lulling her tired body into a state of almost weightlessness. "Just rest." She didn't have to be told twice, asleep in his arms before he even makes it to her room, completely exhausted.


End file.
